London Film Festival Line-Up Announced

Clooney! Fiennes! Cronenberg! Clooney!The BFI London Film Festival is 55 years old, but even with bus-pass eligibility on the horizon, it's showing no signs of losing its vitality. The full line-up has been announced and includes 204 feature films, including new offerings by British directors of the calibre of Andrea Arnold, Steve McQueen, Michael Winterbottom, Lynne Ramsay and Terence Davies. There's also a UK bow for the much buzzed-about silent film The Artist, news that's pretty thrilling for anyone who witness the clamour that surrounded it at Cannes. Star-wise, George Clooney will be making the festival 27% more glamorous. He's scheduled to appear at gala screenings of his new political thriller, The Ides Of March, as well as Alexander Payne's The Descendants. He had a busy LFF a couple of years ago, what with Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Men Who Stare At Goats and Up In The Air, and it's more of the same for the Cloonster. There's a strong literary vibe, too. Michael Winterbottom's Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut, Coriolanus, Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights and, er, Roland Emmerich's Shakespearean thriller Anonymous will have bookish types all a'quiver. Also likely to excite punters and critics alike are David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, Ramsay's We Need To Talk About Kevin, and Steve 'No not that one' McQueen's Shame. The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted Michael Fassbender having a sexy crisis in there, not once, but twice. This will be pleasing to fans of that kind of thing. Other luminaries with films appearing are Roman Polanski (Carnage), Gus Van Sant (Restless), Werner Herzog (Into The Abyss), Todd Solondz (Dark Horse), and Jonathan Demme (I'm Carolyn Parker). Huzzah too for the Dardenne brothers, stars of Empire's Cannes blogs, whose latest, The Kid With The Bike, tells the moving tale of a baby goat who escapes from a feta factory to enter the Tour de France. Or something along those lines. We might need to check the synopsis. The LFF will boast enough starry faces to keep autograph hunters happy. Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Rachel Weisz will be there to usher the festival in on October 12 with an opening night screening of Fernando Meirelles' 360, while Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea brings the curtain down on proceedings on October 27. Click here for the 411 on 360 and co, and all the LFF details.